To Be In Your Shoes
by aerisbolt
Summary: Tifa finds a very interesting way to learn what is like to be Reno's coworker for a day. A four part story for The Sacred and Profane.
1. Girl's Night In

Hi everyone! This is probably going to be a three part story. Sacred has been so patient with me and I appreciate it so much, but I wanted to at least give this out for him. I hope everyone will enjoy and be looking forward to the next part!

Disclaimer: Square Enix owns all things FFVII.

* * *

"Tifa!"

Tifa Lockhart instinctively rolled her eyes, her day had already been extremely stressful and honestly she was not really in the mood for her very feisty, very bubbly, yet very endearing friend Yuffie.

"Tifa, are you here?"

Tifa closed her eyes for a moment and let out a sigh. She was going to do her best to not be annoyed and at least seem happy to see her friend.

"I'm upstairs Yuffie."

Yuffie came bouncing into Tifa's bedroom, and maybe it was just the day she was having but Tifa swore that Yuffie was even more bouncy than usual.

Oh dear.

"Hiya Tifa, geez you make a girl work just for a one sentence response!"

Tifa could help but giggle in spite of herself. Yuffie was standing there with a bag that was at least half of her, and Yuffie looked like she was going to fall over at any moment.

"So the shelve guys are at my place right now setting up my materia display case." Yuffie blurted out a little too loudly.

Tifa winced a little as her ears began to ring.

"Oh? So you finally found one that was worthy of you materia huh?"

Yuffie stuck out her tongue. "Whatever, anyway I was hoping you could help me sort through all my materia and give me your thoughts on how I should display it. I have changed my mind so many times that I feel like I will never decide on how to put them up there."

Tifa was once again amused, even after all these years it was so fascinating watching someone get so worked up over materia and right now the look of distress on Yuffie's face was honestly just precious.

"Sure Yuffie, I'll help you."

Yuffie's eyes lit up. "You will? Man, you are a real pal! Thanks!"

And then Yuffie and Tifa proceeded to go through ALL of the materia in her bag.

Many hours later, a very tired Tifa tossed the empty pizza box into the trash can and leaned back on her elbows as she laid on the floor and admired her and Yuffie's work.

After a few moments Tifa felt Yuffie's eyes on her. She looked up at her friend with curiosity.

"What?"

Yuffie looked down immediately, as if she was ashamed for being caught.

"Nothing...I...I just was wondering...if you had told Reno how you felt about him yet."

Tifa felt her face flush, inside she silently cursed herself again for allowing Yuffie to get her drunk a couple of weeks back. She and Reno had this..well thing going on. Tifa honestly had no way to really describe it or define it. They had been doing the more than friends, less than lovers routine for a while now but Tifa had realized that she was wanting to be serious with Reno...and worse yet that she was completely in love with him. And the only person who knew...Yuffie.

"No, I haven't and I do NOT want to talk about this." Tifa's tone came out much harsher than she had wanted it to, but it was such an uncomfortable subject for her.

Yuffie flinched slightly and Tifa immediately regretted snapping at her. Tifa was about to apologize but Yuffie spoke instead.

"Sorry, I know it's been hard for you...we haven't been very supportive of you and Reno...I won't bring it up again."

Tifa softened, Yuffie was younger than her but Tifa realized that she needed times when she could be just a girl giggling about boys just as much as Yuffie did.

"No, I'm sorry for snapping. The truth is I am angry at myself because I want to really be with Reno in every way but it is not fair for me to ask him to change so that I get what I want."

"Do you know what he wants?"

Tifa sat there blankly staring at the petite ninja.

"Look I know I am just butting in where I shouldn't but I wouldn't be me if I didn't. From what I know, you guys try to keep it all real stress free, you don't talk about your friends and their problems, he doesn't go into details about his relationships with his coworkers. You'll talk about politics, philosophy, history, your dreams etc but you are both trying to keep it from becoming a true relationship because you think that is what the other one wants....your both assuming."

Tifa felt like she was in some alternate reality, Yuffie giving mature sound advice...about relationships?

"Before you say you want to be with him, you need to really know all sides of him and vice versa, if not it won't work."

"But Yuffie, the work thing is the most difficult aspect, not only do I not normally know what he is doing but his relationships with his coworkers...I don't know but it is complicated and I don't know if I will ever understand it or be allowed to understand it."

All of the sudden Yuffie's eyes lit up, and the mischievous gleam in her eye that Tifa had seen so many times before appeared.

"Yuffie...what's going on up in that head of yours?"

Yuffie giggled. "This is perfect, in all my worrying about the logistics of the materia, I forgot all about telling you of my latest great heist as a thief. It is about to be huge news."

"About to be..Yuffie what materia did you steal this time?"

"Transfer materia."

"Huh?"

Yuffie smirked devilishly. " Materia that can allow you to switch bodies."

"Again I say huh?"

"People are always saying to others that there is no way you can know what it is like to be in my shoes or whatever...so a scientist decided to take that idea and make it literal. He thought that in a school or other controlled setting, this materia would be able to hopefully bring about more tolerance. Of course in the wrong hands it could be extremely dangerous. Could you imagine someone transferring bodies with Reeve for a day? That kind of access could detrimental to every thing we've worked for.

Tifa blinked about Yuffie using the word detrimental and then tried to refocus.

"And so what you were doing the world a favor from swiping it from its owner?"

Something like that. Actually this time Reeve asked me to retrieve it, he wants the WRO scientist to look at it and honestly give this University professor a good scare to realize how quickly things can go wrong...overall I think Reeve is hoping he will destroy it.

"And you can assure me its safe."

"If you don't believe me, ask Reeve. The Professor was about to put it on the Academic Market when Reeve decided to use my...specific skills to his advantage."

Tifa still looked completely unsure so Yuffie insisted.

"How about this, lets go to Reeve and see if we can make this to everyone's advantage."


	2. The Plan

After a very long delay, Part 2 is here (sorry Sacred)! Sorry for the lack of ReTi here, but I hope you can still enjoy the interaction between Yuffie, Reeve, and Tifa here. Thanks for reading and I hope you'll come back for Part 3!

Disclaimer: FFVII and it's characters belong to Square Enix.

* * *

It was finally time to call it a night. So after handing Yuffie the diagram of her materia for her shelf, Tifa walked Yuffie toward the door.

"So you'll meet me at 7:30am at WRO Headquarters right?"

Tifa groaned a little, but eventually smiled and nodded.

"Good, that should give us plenty of time to talk to Reeve about my idea before the main meeting. I have to say this might be one of my most brilliant ideas."

"Which probably means it will be a pure disaster."

"Gee thanks for the vote of confidence."

"Your welcome."

"Bite me."

"Not tonight Yuffie I'm too tired."

"Gawd Reno really has been rubbing off on you."

"Oh speaking of rubbing, have I ever told you how talented Reno is rubbing my-"

"GOODNIGHT!"

And with that Yuffie took off to her car as Tifa giggled. Sometimes it was too easy to press Yuffie's buttons. Tifa came back in and closed the door. As she wearily headed back up the stairs she glanced at the time. 1:00am, Tifa sighed..._why do I always go along with Yuffie's hair-brained schemes_? One word...curiosity.

***

Tifa was about to fall out of the chair in Reeve's office as she nodded off for the third time since she had arrived. Yuffie had run out to use the ladies room, apparently when she gets excited she drinks a lot of water, so that left Tifa waiting for Reeve all alone. She was like a zombie as she quickly grasped for her coffee cup. She had even gotten a large in hopes that the caffeine would keep her eyes open. So far however no such luck. As she continued to stare at Reeve's empty chair she was brought out of her haze by the door opening.

"Hey Tifa, it is really good to see you."

"Hello Reeve."

Tifa got up to hug her friend. As always he looked extremely professional and amazingly did not look almost any older than the day they had first met. With all his responsibilities that really surprised Tifa.

"So do you know anything about what Yuffie is planning."

"Something that will probably get us all into a lot of trouble."

"Hey can't you guys at least hear me out before you begin teasing me?"

Both Reeve and Tifa turned around at Yuffie's outburst as she walked into the office.

"Gawd I can't leave for a second without my plan being knocked...and you two haven't even heard all the details yet."

"You have 15 minutes to make your case."

"Yes sir." Yuffie said as she stuck her tongue out.

"Okay so as you both already know I have retrieved that transfer materia from the professor."

Both Reeve and Tifa nodded.

"Well I know that a note has already been sent to the professor asking him to come here to discuss the pros and cons of the materia."

Reeve nodded again

"I also know that you were going to give the materia to our research team be analyzed in our labs."

"My idea is, after reconfirming that the materia is safe to use on a person, I think it would be great for the WRO to be able to show him the pros and cons with an actual human case where one party is originally unaware that the materia is going to be used on them."

Reeve looked like he was about to protest but Yuffie kept going.

"Come on Reevy we know he was going to sell it, he had already sent out feelers to a lot of interested parties and I am pretty sure he can have no way of knowing which ones may be terrorist fronting as academia. Plus all his cases were of willing participants on both sides, at least documented research wise. We have a real chance to show the pros and cons in a real life setting."

Reeve's eyebrows went up, apparently Reeve could get surprised by certain words in Yuffie's vocabulary too.

"Plus I already have thought of the perfect person to take on this task....Tifa."

Reeve stared at Tifa for a moment as she shifted uncomfortably in her chair.

"I see why Tifa would be a good candidate, we know her well and know she is strong...but who would be the other unknowing participant?"

"Elena."

"Elena?"

Reeve stood up now, clearly not expecting a Turk to be named.

"Yuffie why on earth would you pick her?"

"Why not Elena."

Reeve sighed, "She is a strong, smart woman...but we all know she sometimes doesn't think before she says something or takes a course of action and can be...emotional."

Tifa smiled.

"If this materia works the way it is suppose the Elena would be able to use Tifa's fighting skills. Of course that is one of the selling points. You all the sudden know the other person's skills while keeping your own mind. You are still you but get the advantage of knowing all about someone else."

"Yup exactly why I think this is perfect."

"Yuffie."

"No, please hear me out. You know damn well that Tseng doesn't tell you EVERYTHING that goes on with the Turks even now....wouldn't it be to our advantage to be able to truly find out if they are truly behaving by sending in a mole for a day?"

Reeve leaned forward on his desk toward Yuffie , he was agitated because he knew her argument was a good one.

Yuffie leaned right back at him on the other side. Tifa couldn't help but notice how entertaining it was watching the two of them go back and forth.

"It will only be for one day"...

"Half a day."

"Fine by me."

Reeve stared at Yuffie for another few moments, it was obvious he was thinking the idea over one final time. He then turned his attention to Tifa.

"Now before Yuffie does her victory dance, how do you feel about all this?"

"It seems wrong and it is obviously dangerous....however, I can't lie; I am curious."

"Okay Yuffie I will give it my blessing and present the plan in the meeting."

"Wahoo Reevy, I knew I could count on you!"

Yuffie ran over and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

_Poor Reeve, _Tifa thought, he and Yuffie were the Ying and Yang when it came to their philosophy of what it means to be professional. Yet somehow they made a good team.

"Yuffie please, can you pretend to be professional for one more minute."

"Oh sorry boss."

"There is one last stipulation you have to meet if you want my cooperation...what is it that you two haven't told me?"

Yuffie did her best innocent and confused impression. But as soon as Reeve looked at Tifa, her averting eyes and tomato red cheeks gave them both away.

"Tifa?"

"Oh alright, she wants to see the part of Reno's life he keeps closed off from her. There ya happy now?" Yuffie blurted out.

Reeve raised his eyebrows at Yuffie's confession and then turned his attention back to Tifa, his face became very solemn.

"That is pretty deceitful Tifa."

Tifa looked down, completely embarrassed, she was sure he would scrap the whole idea.

"I love it."

Both Tifa and Yuffie's mouths dropped open as they watched Reeve smirk in delight. After taking a couple moments Tifa was able to recover her ability to speak.

" Really?" Tifa asked as Reeve nodded and smiled. Yuffie was still blankly staring at Reeve.

Poor Elena, she will be so confused." Tifa said quietly.

"Nah, she'll get over it, especially when she sees whose body she has taken over. I mean who wouldn't want to be trapped in that body?"

" I'm sorry what was that last part?" Yuffie asked staring at him incredulously.

Tifa just began to laugh. And it was looking like her and Elena were going to be having a very interesting morning very soon, but for now Tifa would continue to enjoy this morning with Yuffie and Reeve.


	3. Dealing with coworkers

Hello all, my profoundest apologies about the long delay on the next part of this story. I just hope everyone can still enjoy it, especially Sacred, who the story is dedicated to in the first place. Looks like I will be turning this three part story into a four part story!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything

* * *

Her hand was shaking as she pressed the 21st floor button. She tried to remember to breath in and out. In a way it still seemed like a dream, that this was just some crazy dream she was having after too many shots. But as she listened to the elevator as it passed each floor, Tifa realized that in reality, yes she had pretty much jumped Elena this morning using the transfer materia on her. Tifa couldn't help but giggle as she pictured Elena freaking out trying to figure out what was going on. Elena was going to be allowed to limited access to people and places, until Tifa had enough time to really be able to give a report of what the materia did. She put her hand through her hair as she does often when nervous, only to ungracefully jerk when her hand quickly pulls through the just above the shoulder length hair. She laughs at herself; _that's right, Elena's hair is much shorter than mine._

She takes a moment to look at herself in the mirror. It was the strangest sensation she had ever experienced, looking through someone else's eyes, literally. Having her own memories but Elena's body. Well actually she did seem to have a lot of Elena's memories too, or at least information. As the elevators opened she did her best to casually walk off the elevator and glance around. She had only been on this floor once or twice so she expected to have to be acclimated to her surroundings. However, before she even realized, she was standing in front of a door that said TURKS, Authorized Personnel Only. She then typed in a number she didn't even know she knew and heard the door buzz, telling her that she was granted access. She had arrived, now the hard part...it was time to pretend to be Elena.

The first person she saw was Rude, who was already working diligently at his computer. First test, to bother or not to bother Rude?

"Good Morning Rude!" Tifa said in a way too high sing songy voice. _Wow does Elena always sound like this in the morning?_

Rude did not respond and a relieved Tifa went to sit down at her desk (even without Elena's memories it would have been easy to pick out, it was the only one with a feminine touch and completely immaculate). It was then that she realized that if she sat down, it may seem odd...Elena didn't like being ignored, that much Tifa knew. So she walked over to Rude's desk and cleared her throat.

"Excuse me, I'm pretty sure I said good morning to you, it can't be that much trouble to open that mouth of yours and say the word hello, or morning, or whatever one word you prefer."

Tifa heard Rude sigh and then say "Morning." in the most monotone voice that is possible.

Tifa smirked a little, "See, that wasn't so bad, was it?"

That time she only got a groan and figuring she had played her opening part pretty well, went to sit down at her desk. She was instantly grateful at how methodical Elena was, she already had her schedule laid out, and what today's agenda was suppose to be. A few minutes later she was completely enthralled in her work. She figured part of it was Elena's feelings, it was obvious she puts a lot of pride in her work, but some of it was Tifa's curiosity. Because today was catch up on paperwork day she was able to see what some of the missions were. Her respect for what they were doing went up each time she read a report, there was so much detail, every possible scenario was thought out and planned for.

"Hello my fellow coworkers I am here to rescue you from the boring hell you are obviously living in!"

Tifa jumped so high she almost fell out of her chair. She glanced over and their was her lover standing their looking very smug and carefree and smirking at the fact that he had startled her.

"Ugh, Reno seriously." Tifa said, annoyed to have been interrupted. _Was that her or Elena's feelings?_

Next thing she knew Reno was right on top of her, sitting in her lap.

"Oh Lainey, you always make my entrance worth it, you fall for it every time!"

"Reno!" Tifa felt her face turn red, he must have recently put his cologne on because it smelled just strong enough to make her melt, she loved his cologne.

"Hey easy blondee, I'm not going to do anything...too inappropriate."

"Well that's disappointing." Tifa didn't even think before saying it, and immediately began kicking herself, not even two minutes in and Reno already has her distracted from her performance as Elena.

"Ohh, well looky there Elena is in one of her flirty moods. So that can only mean one of two things, Tseng asked you out and you are on cloud nine, or you are in your annual screw Tseng epiphany and are determined to stop pining over our something stuck up his ass boss."

Tifa's mouth dropped open, she couldn't believe that Elena wasn't either in a full blown relationship with Tseng or was still willing to pine over a man for this long. It was then she realized, she and Elena may not be that different when it comes to giving someone their heart.

"Help me out partner, which one do you think it is?"

They both looked over at Rude who had gotten up to get some coffee, he turned around and just stood there, frozen and silent.

"Ah, Rude's giving us his infamous, cold as a statue look, which means he is going with option 2, screw Tseng and not in the pleasurable way."

Tifa started laughing, she had to admit she always was fascinated about Reno/Rude/Elena's interactions and how they weren't trying to kill each other or at least despise each other with their very different personalities and approaches to the job. Elena wanted to do the best work, but wears her heart on her sleeve. Rude is all business. And Reno is anything but business in his approach. Yet here the "three" of them were, and Tifa could feel the closeness they had with each other. There was love and respect, thought they may never actually tell each other.

"The only one going to be screwed is you if you don't get off Elena and start working on your paperwork."

All three of them turned to see Tseng standing in the doorway, staring calmly at them.

Reno jumped off "Elena" and went to his desk, Tifa noticed her body become much more stiff and immediately looked down at her paperwork.

"So what happened, you have a lover's quarrel with Rufus?" Reno snarked as he grabbed a massive pile of paperwork from his files.

Tseng's glared at Reno but did not answer him right away. Tifa noticed that his eyes left Reno quickly and turned to her. She could have sworn she saw a little longing and maybe even sadness flash in his eyes but it was gone as quickly as it came.

"I will tell you if you need to know my business Reno, for now why don't you try to actually get some work done."

With that Tseng went into his private office and closed the door.

"Well something must have went down between him and Rufus, he is definitely cranky earlier than usual this morning." Reno said.

"Agreed."

Tifa jumped when she heard Rude speak and suddenly she once again felt like a fish out of water, she could only hope that they would keep giving her more insight to what was going on.

"Wow, Tseng really must have pissed you off this time, normally we would at least get a "serves him right" quip from you." Reno stated like a kid teasing another kid about a crush.

Tifa was now feeling very uncomfortable, she had no idea what response would change the focus back to Rufus and Tseng. She wanted to know more about that.

"Can't we keep the gossip about those two for a change please..."

Reno stared at her for a few long seconds, but then finally answered.

"You're right Lainey, as much fun as it is to pick on your love life, right now Rufus and Tseng are much more interesting."

"How much you want to bet that Rufus is finally ready to get a little pay back on Reeve."

Tifa's mouth dropped for a moment, and her head was spinning with questions immediately. Before she even realized it though she was talking.

" Payback on Reeve? Is Rufus Shinra seriously contemplating a takeover?"

" That's our Lainey, always jumping to the most dramatic conclusion."

"What?" Tifa asked, getting frustrated that she didn't understand what was going on.

"Rufus loves being just a figure head, he still looks like he has some power without having any major responsibility and has been able to make up for a lot of the things both he and his father have done in the past. His life is good right now."

"I don't understand."

"Well that is understandable, since you don't know about the bet between Reeve and Rufus years ago."

Tifa stared blankly at Reno and stayed quiet so Reno could continue.

"When it was decided by all of us that a new organization was needed, it was obvious that Rufus would have to give up power as amends and it would be better PR wise if he was in the background. But there were a lot of Shinra employees needing to work and as you remember no one wanting thousands of workers laid off."

"I remember, Reeve was chosen since he had a link to both sides, as it were."

"Exactly. And Reeve was really good a stroking Rufus ego to help the transition, and then to seal is cooperation....Reeve made a bet with Rufus."

"Very interesting, and that bet was what?"

Reno smirked. "If Reeve did a decent job as head of the WRO, Rufus would owe him a party, celebrating his success and praising him as a boss."

Tifa started laughing. "And since Reeve has done a decent job over the course of the past few years, it is time for Rufus to pay up eh?"

"That's right, but we all know that Rufus doesn't concede easily and while he will honor the terms, I would bet anything that he at least wants to give Reeve one friendly parting shot."

At that moment Tseng's door swings open and he comes back in to join the discussion.

"You are correct Reno, Rufus wants to embarrass Reeve at his party. And has asked us to come up with the right info that would make it happen."

"Tseng, does he want to embarrass him, or humiliate him...is that why you are upset?"

"No, actually it is to be in good fun, the problem is I have no idea what would embarrass Reeve...he is always good at staying cool under pressure and in all my years I can't remember a time that he was embarrassed by anything crude or crazy. So I have no idea what we are going to come up with, but we need to do some digging and fast. Rufus is setting up the party to be in two weeks."

"I have an idea sir."

All of them turn to Rude who has inexplicably decided to join the conversation.

" You could have Rufus call out Reeve's feelings for Yuffie."

Tifa, Reno, and Tseng mouth's dropped open at the same moment and blankly stared at Rude who was still sitting casually in his chair as if he hadn't said anything profound at all.

"EXCUSE ME?" Tifa said loudly, completely in shock.

Looks like Tifa really had picked a good day to be in the shoes of a Turk.


End file.
